Category Archive: Career Development

First and Lasting Impressions

Posted by on January 21, 2010

I have had two very bad experiences with customer service this week.  Not only was I the recipient of this bad “service” I also saw several other people having the exact same horrible experience.

In both situations the people assigned to dealing with the problem made promises they did not keep.  For example setting pickup times and assuring you that if they did not call it would be ready, status updates that did not happen and the approach let’s just try this and I am sure it will work when they really did not have a clue about what to do.

Here is the interesting part at least for my situation.  With both companies only because of my pushing I was eventually given to a supervisor to help me resolve hour’s worth of wasted time and finally fix the problems. 

When I communicated with these new people they had a much better attitude and brought product knowledge that the front line people did not know.  They did simple things like returning my calls on time and then committed to do whatever it took to resolve my issues.

Here is my question?  Why not set the bar for all of the front line people in your organization at the same level where the supervisors were operating either in technical training, people skills or the authority to make it happen.

You will never convince me that it is cost effective for any company to pay less than qualified people to take hours of their time and your customers offending people that will probably never come back unless they get the slim chance to talk with their boss.

The front lines of your organization where interaction takes place with the people who are experiencing what you have to offer will always be the place where you want to make the best impression.  If you’re weakest and newest team members are given these roles thinking they will grow into the job eventually the problem will solve itself because you will not have any more customers to deal with.

Categories: Career Development Staff Development | Comments Off on First and Lasting Impressions

How The Mighty Fall

Posted by on September 8, 2009

Jim Collins follows up his all time best selling leadership book Good to Great with this incredible new work on why some of these once great companies now have fallen as well.  He writes, “Whether you prevail or fail, endure or die, depends more on what you do to yourself than on what the world does to you.”

Based on his thorough teams research there are five major stages that lead to failure:

1.       Hubris Born of Success:  This stage kicks in when people become arrogant, regarding success virtually as an entitlement, and they lose sight of the true underlying factors that created success in the first place.

2.      Undisciplined Pursuit of More:  Companies in this stage stray from the disciplined creativity that led them to greatness in the first place, making undisciplined leaps into areas where they cannot be great or growing faster than they can achieve with excellence, or both.

3.      Denial of Risk and Peril:  At this stage leaders discount negative data, amplify positive data and start to blame external factors for setbacks rather than accept responsibility.

4.      Grasping for Salvation:  The sharp decline now becomes visible to all and the common saviors include a charismatic visionary leader, a bold but untested strategy, a radical transformation, a dramatic cultural revolution, a hoped-for blockbuster product or maybe game changing acquisition.

5.      Capitulation to Irrelevance or Death:  At this stage accumulated setbacks and expensive false starts erode financial strength and individual spirit to such an extent that leaders abandon all hope of building a great future.

All companies go through ups and downs but if you are willing to admit your mistakes and make the necessary changes early then this death spiral cannot only be overcome it can be avoided entirely.

Categories: Career Development Leading Change | Comments Off on How The Mighty Fall

Organizational Culture Change

Posted by on September 4, 2009

According to John Kotter there are many reasons change initiatives fail especially in large organizations.  The number one reason is there is not a clear sense of urgency for change that makes everyone willing to pay the short term price of pain due to change to gain the long term benefit of progress.

Many times the communications part of the process breaks down and the implementers do not get enough information to really buy in.  The importance of creating short term wins for establishing credibility for the entire process cannot be overstated. 

When the new of change becomes the norm there are several key factors that let you know it is now firmly in the D.N.A. of your organizational culture:

1.       More change, not less:  The guiding coalition uses the credibility afforded by short-term wins to tackle additional and bigger change projects.

2.      More help:  Additional people are brought in, promoted, and developed to help with all the changes.

3.      Leadership from senior management:  Senior people focus on maintaining clarity of shared purpose for the overall effort and keeping urgency levels up.

4.      Project management and leadership from below:  Lower ranks in the hierarchy both provide leadership and specific projects and manage those projects.

5.      Reduction of unnecessary interdependencies:  To make change easier in both the short and long term, managers identify unnecessary interdependencies and eliminate them.

When everyone in the organization starts to articulate the new vision in their own words as if it were their idea then you know they own the process.  It is time to start looking for what needs to be changed next, the process never stops.

 

 

Categories: Career Development Leading Change Servant Leader | Comments Off on Organizational Culture Change

Pull The Trigger

Posted by on August 10, 2009

There may be nothing harder to do as a leader than make the decision to terminate an employee.  To be honest we feel to some degree we have failed and that is hard to accept.

This is especially true if we hired the person in the first place.  Not only have they failed but now our performance as a leader may be in question also.  We cannot let our own emotional need for personal success stand in the way of doing what is right for the organization.

There are three critical things that I must do as a leader before I feel that my responsibility has been completed prior to any termination.  The first is to provide clear expectations of what is required in their job description.  It is impossible for someone to meet your expectations if they have not been clearly communicated early and often.

The second important thing is to make sure the person has had adequate training and resources to complete their job successfully.  It is not fair to ask someone to grow a particular area and not give them the financial and manpower assets they need to be effective.

The last issue for me is a comprehensive and ongoing feedback system that lets a person know exactly where they stand in the area of performance.  It is not right to see someone make mistakes day after day and stick your head in the sand hoping it will go away only to drop a bomb on them at annual review or even worse an unexpected termination.  If you do not have the leadership skills to positively confront someone about what they are doing wrong then you may be the one in the wrong job and not them.

If you have done all of these three things well and given this person every opportunity to improve and they don’t then you should feel no guilt or sense of failure.  Never obsess on the five to ten percent of your staff that may need to go every year. What is extremely important is to remember the ninety to ninety five percent who are doing their jobs well and are watching to see if you have the character as their leader to pull the trigger.

 

Categories: Career Development Leading Change Pastoral Leadership Staff Development | Comments Off on Pull The Trigger

Characteristics Of An Effective Vision

Posted by on August 5, 2009

When we think of the word vision we are drawn to a picture of the future of how things can be better than they are in the present.  Most vision casting does a good job of painting a hopeful image of the positive benefits involved but not a very realistic job of the costs involved to get there. 

This is a major problem because when the negative forces and fears involved in the change process start to appear and people are not prepared they can give up very quickly resulting in the death of the vision.  John Kotter in his book Leading Change lists all the characteristics that should be included in an effective vision:

1.      Imaginable:  Conveys a picture of what the future will look like

2.      Desirable:  Appeals to the long-term interests of employees, customers, stockholders, and others who have a stake in the enterprise

3.      Feasible:  Comprises realistic, attainable goals

4.      Focused:  Is clear enough to provide guidance in decision making

5.      Flexible:  Is general enough to allow individual initiative and alternative responses in light of changing conditions

6.      Communicable:  Is easy to communicate; can be successfully explained within five minutes

The change process for most people is extremely difficult because of the fear of the unknown.  There are powerful forces involved that will try to maintain the status quo at all costs.  The pain of the present must be contrasted with the pain of the change process so that the people will know that the option of no change is not realistic.

People also need to be told on the front end that sacrifices are probably going to need to be made and there will be discomfort involved during the transition.  However, if the vision takes the group to a better and more viable place then all the costs involved will be worth it every time.

Categories: Career Development Leading Change Pastoral Leadership | Comments Off on Characteristics Of An Effective Vision

The Leaders Legacy

Posted by on August 3, 2009

In a day when markets and shareholders demand short term rewards for their financial investment it is extremely difficult for leaders to have the courage to lead with the long term as a priority.  The temptation to make easy decisions that will make the leaders bottom line look good today are setting up good companies for failure down the road.

This mentality usually results in a strong almost dictatorial leadership style that builds the business around the charisma and determination of the celebrity type leader.  There is very little delegation and certainly no succession planning taking place because that does not serve the crisis of the moment mentality.

The real test of any leader’s success must not be simply measured by the timeframe when they are working but by what happens to the organization when they leave.  If everything seems to fall apart and all positive momentum is lost then you cannot believe the leader set the team up for future success.

John Maxwell makes the point when he writes, “Achievement comes to someone when he is able to do great things for himself.  Success comes when he empowers followers to do great things with him.  Significance comes when he develops leaders to do great things for him.  But a legacy is created only when a person puts his organization into a position to do great things without him.”

When we value the success of others over the long haul over any short term success we may have for ourselves then we are leading with integrity.  Anything less than that is nothing more than selfish ambition and that is not true leadership.

Categories: Career Development Church Scattered Personal Leadership Servant Leader Spiritual Growth Storytelling | Comments Off on The Leaders Legacy

Four Generations Of Time Management

Posted by on July 29, 2009

Stephen Covey pioneered this type of thinking several years ago but it is certainly worth repeating based on the incredible pressures we are all under in the area of time management.  In a day when it is impossible to do everything that comes our way we must find ways to prioritize the important things and the discipline to say no to everything else.

The first wave or generation of time management could be characterized by simply taking notes and making checklists to try to keep track of all the things we needed to do.  To some degree we still use this today but in a much more effective way.

The second generation started to use calendars and appointment books.  The big improvement here was in planning ahead and making sure we had an idea of what we wanted to accomplish over a longer period of time.  We all still use calendars today and they help us not only in planning but in daily execution as well.

The third generation brought into play the whole concept of prioritization into the process where we try on a daily, weekly, monthly or annual basis to identify those things that are most important and do them first and move the lesser items to the bottom of list.  We started setting goals and incorporating those goals into our time planning which place a priority on efficiency.

The emerging fourth generation that recognizes that time management is a misnomer because the ultimate challenge is not to manage time as much as it is to manage ourselves.  This whole concept recognizes that just because we can do things faster today they might not be the right things to do and that you cannot a week in advance know everything that should be on the top of your list.

The fourth generation mindset is that I will value relationships over results and I will always be open in the flow of my life to change direction on any given day when a greater priority comes into my life.  The use of time is based on core values and is not driven by efficiency but effectiveness.

 

Categories: Career Development Execution | Comments Off on Four Generations Of Time Management

In Search For Silver Bullet

Posted by on July 28, 2009

In Jim Collins latest book How The Mighty Fall he talks about companies that start on a systematic downward spiral that leads ultimately to total failure as an organization.  One common problem he found is that when they finally realize they are in serious trouble rather than dealing with real problems they search for the quick fix approach of finding the right silver bullet.

When full blown panic sets in there is a frantic search for several silver bullets that can be dramatic big moves such as game changing acquisitions or a risky new strategy or an exciting innovation or new leadership, anything that can save us.  The following is list of several silver bullets observed:

1.       Grasping for a Leader as Savior:  The board responds to threats and setbacks by searching for a charismatic leader and an outside savior.

2.      Panic and Haste:  Instead of being calm, deliberate, and disciplined, people exhibit hasty, reactive behavior, bordering on panic.

3.      Radical Change and Revolution with Fanfare:  The language of revolution and radical change characterizes the new era: New Programs! New cultures! New Strategies!

4.      Hype Precedes Results:  Instead of setting expectations low—underscoring the duration and difficulty of the turnaround—leaders hype their visions initiating a pattern of overpromising and under delivering.

5.      Initial Upswing Followed by Disappointments:  There is an initial burst of positive results, but they do not last; dashed hope follows dashed hope; the organization achieves no buildup, no cumulative momentum.

6.      Confusion and Cynicism:  People cannot easily articulate what the organization stands for; core values have eroded to the point of irrelevance; the organization has become just another place to work.

There are no quick fixes or silver bullets for organizations that have complex long term problems that have built up for decades.  The new realities of the global economy did not create these problems it merely acted as a catalyst to reveal them.

 

Categories: Career Development Leading Change Staff Development Teamwork | Comments Off on In Search For Silver Bullet

Role Of Short Term Wins

Posted by on July 27, 2009

One of the major mistakes we make in major change initiatives is that we oversell the long term goal at the expense of dealing with the short term realities.  People do want to know where they are going but they want to know even more what does all this mean for me right now?

Once the new change plan has been implemented it is critical for everyone involved to experience the benefits of short term wins so they can stay motivated for the future and the change that is yet to come.  John Kotter list several roles that short term wins play:

1.       Provide evidence that sacrifices are worth it:  Wins greatly help justify the short term cost involved.

2.      Reward change agents:  After a lot of hard work, positive feedback builds morale and motivation.

3.      Help fine-tune vision and strategies:  Short term wins give the guiding coalition concrete data on the viability of their ideas.

4.      Undermine cynics and self-serving resisters:  Clear improvements in performance make it difficult for people to block needed change.

5.      Keep bosses on board:  Provides those higher in the hierarchy with evidence that the transformation is on track.

6.      Build momentum:  Turns neutrals into supporters, reluctant supporters into active helpers.

Therefore it becomes critical in any change planning to build into the strategy several things that can be done within the first six months that may be small in scale but clear wins that everyone can celebrate.

 

 

Categories: Career Development Leading Change Pastoral Leadership | Comments Off on Role Of Short Term Wins

How The Mighty Fall

Posted by on July 23, 2009

Jim Collins has recently released his new book on How The Mighty Fall because of all the once great companies that are now a shadow of what they used to be.  He writes, “Whether you prevail or fail, endure or die, depends more on what you do to yourself than on what the world does to you.”

His research of these companies led to develop a list of the five stages that lead to decline:

1.       Hubris Born Of Success—Great companies can become insulated by success; accumulated momentum can carry an enterprise forward, for a while, even if its leaders make poor decisions or lose discipline.

2.      Undisciplined Pursuit Of More—Hubris from stage one leads right into stage two of more scale, more growth, more acclaim, more of whatever those in power see as success.

3.      Denial Of Risk And Peril—As companies move into stage three, internal warning signs begin to mount, yet external results remain strong enough to “explain away” disturbing data or to suggest that the difficulties are temporary or cyclic or not that bad.

4.      Grasping For Salvation—The cumulative peril and or risks gone bad of stage three assert themselves, throwing the enterprise into a sharp decline visible to all.  Should the leader grasp for quick salvation or return to the disciplines that brought about greatness in the first place?

5.      Capitulation To Irrelevance Or Death—The longer a company remains in stage four, repeatedly grasping for silver bullets, the more likely it will spiral downward.  In some cases, their leaders just sell out; in other cases, the institution atrophies into utter insignificance; and in the most extreme cases, the enterprise simply dies outright.

The book is not all doom and gloom because there are clear principles given why some companies never give in even though they may suffer temporary setbacks and short term failure.

Categories: Career Development | Comments Off on How The Mighty Fall